Hush-A-Bye Review by Sharla Kistow

Postpartum Depression better known as ‘Baby Blues’ is a complex mix of emotional and behavior patterns that takes place in women after giving birth. Hush-A-Bye directed, written and produced by Taromi Lourdes Joseph is one of the best, most informative thirty minute short films you may ever see in your life and enjoy thoroughly. The director said her reason for creating a film of this serious nature is because of an incident that took place in 2016 where a mother jumped through a window and all the signs lead back to postpartum depression.

From beginning to end the director was able to highlight very important issues, or I should say, feelings women go through after giving birth. Let me start by saying postpartum is a SERIOUS illness that many take for granted. It doesn’t just affect women alone but the entire household, husbands, mothers-in-law, cousins, friends, anyone that is close to a person that’s about to give birth. You as a friend should take the initiative to make sure that person is a 100 percent okay. But the funny thing about this illness is not many people may know someone is going through PPD unless they speak out.

The film began with a surprise baby shower for Rose by her closest friends, she’s seen mingling and laughing, telling a few jokes and everyone is in good spirits… or so it seems. While Rose’s friends were enjoying themselves at the shower you began to see a change in her attitude. She starts to distance herself from everyone. Eventually, she excuses herself from the group and goes to the bathroom just to gather her thoughts but something was still extremely off about her.

Things got worse after she give birth to Millie, her husband went on tour so she was basically left alone to take care of a newborn. Although she had help from her mother to take care of Millie, it just wasn’t enough in Rose’s eyes and no one seems to understand what she is going through. She began feeling depressed and her anxiety gets the best of her. I believe after giving birth every single emotion a person can feel, Rose went through, which includes feeling fat, not feeling beautiful anymore, not feeling like socialising, basically feeling like everything they do is NOT good enough etc. One thing that stood out to me in this film is that Rose’s illness is more of an emotional postpartum depression than it is physical.

Another scene from the film that stood out to me was when Rose had a break down in the middle of the street near a park. She ran out her vehicles because as she was hearing voices in her head and no one took it upon themselves to find out if she was okay instead people take out their phones to capture the moment of her break down to post on social media.

I can only begin to imagine how hard it is for any woman who may suffer from postpartum depression. Just the thought of having to juggle work, school, a business and trying to maintain a household by cleaning and cooking… that alone is somewhat of a horror movie by itself… but adding a new born child into the mix can shift things into overdrive for anyone. It’s a lot and for that I applaud you women. This film is a true success, in just 30 minutes the director was able to take the audience on an eye opening journey, highlighting something that is important, something that people would normally leave on the back burner. Imagine what the director could have done if she had more than just thirty minutes. I will recommend anyone to watch this film. As I said earlier, this will be the best thirty minutes short film you’ll ever watch.